Society

Wednesday

20 Sep 2023

2623: Half-day closing?

29 29-36’s 14 13 31 25 1D 2 24, in which 1 Down and 24 are each non-words that concatenate two real terms. Unchecked, unclued letters spell out SEXY DUTCH X-MAG. Across 1 Fling marauder off base, across main road (7,6) 9 Husband going inside can slim (4) 11 Distinguished mayor’s robing on the way to work (10) 12 Semi-smooth iron instrument (4) 16 Keen on crossing river passage before others (5) 17 Cycling team’s muscles (5) 20 Coach, theirs regularly taking shower (7) 21 WW2 commando’s language in court (7) 23 Scrooge perhaps first on since November (7) 27 Diffusion of oxygen, sulphur and iodine in

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: why you should never open a novel with the weather

In Competition No. 3317 you were invited to provide an opening to a novel that bears out Elmore Leonard’s tip to writers: ‘Never open a book with weather.’ Leonard’s other bêtes noires, outlined in his 2007 10 Rules of Writing, include prologues, exclamation marks and the modification of the word ‘said’ with an adverb. But his most important rule, he said, the one that sums up the ten was: ‘If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.’ On which note, over to your laboured, florid, banal offerings. They were a hoot to judge and earn their authors £25. The winds perform their lucubrations, crossing the silent furze, shifting hither and

Luke McShane

No. 770

White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by C.G.S. Narayanan, K. Seetharaman, 2017. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 25 September. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 Nc2! Then 1…Ke6 2 Bc4# or 1…Ke4 2 Bc6# or 1…Kc5 2 Bc7# Last week’s winner Paddy Walsh, High Wycombe, Bucks

Luke McShane

India’s rising stars

The former world champion Vishy Anand has described the current crop of young Indian talents as a golden generation. At last month’s Fide World Cup, four of the quarter-finalists were Indian. Most eminent was 17-year-old Gukesh, who recently entered the world top ten, narrowly overtaking Anand himself. Praggnanandhaa, 18 years old, went as far as the final, where he was beaten by Magnus Carlsen. The others were Erigaisi, who turned 20 earlier this month, and Vidit, almost a veteran at age 28! All four players were back at the board at the Tata Steel India Rapid and Blitz, held in Kolkata earlier this month. Impressive as they are, it

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 23 September 2023

The great Bob Hamman, in his heyday the best player in the world, was once asked what the biggest mistakes of his bridge career had been, and he answered: ‘To gamble on a penalty instead of bidding our own contract.’ The longer I play this game, the more I realise how right he is; defending is hard and full of surprises, and defending doubled contracts – especially part scores – is as unprofitable as it is stressful. We could hardly ask for a better example of this principle than today’s hand from the Bermuda Bowl final between Norway and Switzerland. This was the auction at the first table with Norway

Melissa Kite

In defence of cows

‘They’re going to have to stop cows,’ said my mother, looking doubtfully down at her plate as we tucked into a roast dinner. It was not like her to come over all veganistic, but she had been watching the BBC where she had got hold of the idea that cows might have to be banned because ‘they can’t stop them breaking wind’. Put the entire working population on veganism for a week and see what happens And nor should they, said I, cutting off a juicy slice to push into my mouth, the builder boyfriend and my father also chomping away as we sat around my parents’ dining table. I

Taki

Why the world needs Richard Nixon

Gstaad The Speccie arrived just in time for me to read about the rudeness of one Lyndon Johnson, then vice-president, toward Lady Antonia Fraser. A later occupant of the White House, Jimmy Carter, was not as discourteous as the Texan, but in somewhat similar circumstances he left the poor little Greek boy standing alone surrounded by secret service heavies. This took place at a grand New York dinner party given in Carter’s honour by a real-estate lady, and I was seated with Norman Mailer who was busy trying to make whoopee with my ex sister-in-law, Betsy Kaiser. Norman and I had talked about democracy at the start of the dinner,

Ross Clark

The flaw in Rishi Sunak’s plan to water down net zero

Rishi Sunak will reportedly make a speech later this week watering down some of the targets the government has set itself on achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, although that target itself will not be touched). The proposed ban on new petrol and diesel cars will be put back by five years to 2035, which would bring Britain in line with the EU. The ban on new oil-fired boilers will be put back from 2026 to 2035, thus relieving the Conservatives of the prospect of mass grumbling in one of their natural constituencies, rural areas. Even in 2035, it seems, the target will be to reduce installations only by

John Keiger

Why is France so fascinated by the royals?

As King Charles’ state visit to France begins, it is clear that France is not as republican as it claims. The death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 gave way to an outpouring of French national grief. Speaking for his people, President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: ‘Her death leaves us with a sense of emptiness’. On 19 September, seven million viewers watched the state funeral live on six French television channels, an audience share of 66.7 per cent. One might of course say that it was Queen Elizabeth’s exceptional qualities as a human being, her unfailing devotion to duty, that were being acknowledged rather than her status as monarch. Yet

Joanna Williams

Has the NHS forgotten its real purpose?

As doctors down stethoscopes and walk out of hospitals in their ongoing strike for better pay and working conditions, the public might reasonably conclude that the NHS is underfunded. How, then, do we make sense of this week’s revelation that NHS England is set to open three new departments focusing on equality and diversity? Either there are insufficient funds to pay doctors and nurses a decent wage or there is money to splash out on rainbow lanyards and unconscious bias training. Both cannot be true at the same time. The three new NHS England departments, set to open in April 2024, will be called ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’, ‘People and

Tuesday

19 Sep 2023

Danny Shaw

The Met police is caught in a dangerous spiral

Twelve months after Sir Mark Rowley embarked on a mission to re-boot the Metropolitan Police following a wave of scandals, the force has revealed that it has suspended or placed work restrictions on a thousand of its officers. More than 200 are currently suspended and 860 are on ‘restricted duties’ while criminal or misconduct allegations are investigated – taken together that’s as many as people as work in a small constabulary. In addition, there has been a 66 per cent increase in dismissals for gross misconduct – with 100 in the last year, and 300 more hearings in the pipeline. Scotland Yard says that before long, 60 cases of alleged misconduct or incompetence will

Brendan O’Neill

YouTube is wrong to rush to judgement on Russell Brand

It is often on the back of public fury that dangerous new precedents are set. Authoritarianism can sneak in when we’re all hopping mad about something or someone. So mad that we don’t even notice that society’s rules are being rewritten in an illiberal way. I fear it’s happening again, with YouTube’s demonetisation of Russell Brand. This is a risky thing to say. The climate is febrile right now. Criticise any aspect of the censure of Brand, following the publication of very serious allegations against him, which he strongly denies, and you risk being damned as a Brand defender. Worse, his weird online army, that ‘scamdemic’ mob that views Brand

Freddy Gray

It won’t be long before Russell Brand releases his first show on X

It’s only a matter of time before Russell Brand, backed as he is by Elon Musk, releases his first show on X. I say that because YouTube has just announced that it has ‘suspended monetisation’ on Brand’s channel for ‘violating’ something it calls its ‘creator responsibility policy’. Brand has 6.6 million followers on YouTube, which makes the content he pumps out on the platform highly valuable. He posts videos on Rumble, too, where he has 1.4 million followers. But he has 11.6 million followers on X, which is now making ever bigger strides into the online streaming and video market. You do the math, as Americans like to say. YouTube’s break

Iain Macwhirter

When will Humza Yousaf see sense on his doomed gender bill?

Just when you thought it was safe to go to back in the gender-neutral loo, back comes the row about the Gender Recognition Reform Bill. It lands in Scotland’s highest court today, the Court of Session. Lady Haldane will hear three days of argument on the UK government’s unprecedented veto under the Section 35 of the Scotland Act. The GRR Bill, passed by the Scottish parliament in December after an acrimonious late-night debate, could allow people as young as 16 to change legal sex without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. It is opposed by around two thirds of Scottish voters. But the Scottish government is determined to see it on the

Ross Clark

Why drivers are losing interest in electric cars

In his promised review of net zero policies, Rishi Sunak has already ruled out postponing the proposed ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. Indeed, from the end of the year manufacturers are going to be under a mandate to make sure that a certain proportion of their sales are electric – although the details have not yet been published. But what chances of the car industry actually getting there? While sales of electric cars might seem to be healthy – the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) records that 193,221 pure electric cars were sold in the first eight months of 2023, up

Ed West

What Horrible Histories gets wrong about history

I love the BBC’s Horrible Histories; in fact, I’m on record as saying it’s among the best things about being a parent. The show, which in its first five seasons starred the six actors who went on to make Ghosts, has engaged children and adults alike with a dry wit that owes much to Blackadder. Go and have children just so you have an excuse to watch it. One of its highlights is the music, and the most brilliantly crafted songs, works of genius such as the Scorpions-inspired Viking rock anthem, a song about the Pilgrim Fathers based on ‘Empire State of Mind’, the Kings of Leonesque ‘Alexander’ and the finale to the fifth season, a sort of ‘We Are

Steerpike

Melvyn Bragg takes a pop at Gary Lineker

Radio 4 show In Our Time celebrates its landmark 1,000th episode this week. Host Melvyn Bragg is one of the Beeb’s biggest stars, but it seems his salary hardly puts him on level pegging with some of the corporation’s other big names. In an interview marking In Our Time‘s millennial episode, Bragg gently points out that he is paid 27 times less than Match of the Day host Gary Lineker – even though the two shows get similar audiences. Bragg tells the Times: ‘He is paid 27 times more than I am. Something like that. It would be great if he was paid what I was paid. That would be fine.

Zoe Strimpel

The truth about Bedales

Every now and again, my alma mater is in the news, and why wouldn’t it be? Britain is obsessed with schools and class. Bedales provides ample fodder for both: the boarding school in Hampshire is famously ‘liberal’ – and was so even when England was famously illiberal. Bedales, whose graduates include Lily Allen, Kirstie Allsopp and Daniel Day-Lewis, is the educational equivalent of Tatler smashed together with Vogue. Bedales hit the headlines again this week because it is the first school in the country to ditch GCSEs – those entering now will take just two, in maths and English. The rest will be a mixture of the usual subjects like

Debbie Hayton

Are the Tories still going to ban conversion therapy?

The clock is ticking on a bill to ban conversion therapy, at least for this year. Let’s hope that time runs out before it becomes law. The Tories had previously promised to ban the practice of attempting to change someone’s sexuality or gender identity, but the government appears to have had second thoughts. When Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse asked last week if the bill would be ready in time for the King’s Speech in November, Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt avoided the question. Instead, Mordaunt pointed out that, ‘those are abhorrent practices that sometimes have lifelong impacts on those who have had to endure them.’ Quite. So

Gavin Mortimer

Macron and Starmer are made for each other

It is Keir Starmer’s misfortune that he arrives in Paris today for a meeting with Emmanuel Macron at the moment Europe faces one of its gravest challenges of recent years. More than 11,000 migrants have landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa in the last week, an unprecedented influx that has exposed the deep divisions within the EU. Labour’s leader reportedly wants to discuss how to better improve relations between Britain and the EU, but he may not have the full attention of the French president. Not only is Europe arguing amongst itself over how to tackle the migrant crisis, but Macron’s own party, Renaissance, is also at loggerheads over the